Here's how the Bay Area celebrated 4/20 at SF's Golden Gate Park

Gloria Rodríguez Image
Friday, April 21, 2023
Here's how Bay Area celebrated 4/20 at SF's Golden Gate Park
The 4/20 celebration at Hippie Hill at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park has drawn thousands of people on Thursday.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The 4/20 celebration at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on Thursday has drawn thousands of people.

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The term "420" has roots in the Bay Area.

The story goes that it came from a group of Marin County teens who would smoke every day at 4:20 p.m. The 420 term was later popularized.

It's only appropriate that the annual festival be at Hippie Hill near the Haight, the center of the 1960s counterculture and flower power movement.

This 4/20, you could see a cloud of smoke over Golden Gate Park.

Organizer Alex Aquino says they're expecting about 20,000 people, all drawn by their passion for pot.

VIDEO: 4/20 celebrations return to San Francisco's Hippie Hill in Golden Gate Park

4/20 celebrations return to San Francisco with hundreds flocking to Golden Gate Park's Hippie Hill to partake in the event.

"Regardless of recreational use or adult use, it's still a medicine and it's a celebration," Aquino said. "I think that you know 4/20 marks the day to participate in and partake in the medicine."

The festival schedule includes comedians, DJs and more.

ALEX AQUINO: "We have a wellness and health area now so you'll be able to do how could I say ganja yoga."

GLORIA RODRIGUEZ: "Ganja yoga. What is that?"

ALEX AQUINO: "I think it's yoga and a joint. It's a medicine. I'm going to try to partake in it."

Many Oakland cannabis businesses also had celebrations of their own. The businesses are highlighted in the Oakland Cannabis Trail.

VIDEO: 4/20: How April 20 became a pot day

At 4:20 p.m. today pot smokers will celebrate this unofficial holiday.

"This year's theme is for 4/20, choose equity and come visit Oakland and experience 4/20 with purpose, and visit these shops that are really BIPOC owned, equity owned, women operated and run," Brian Applegarth of Visit Oakland said.

Rose Mary Jane in downtown Oakland is one of those businesses.

"Rosemary Jane is the first and only cannabar and lounge in Oakland," general manager and operator Sway Macaluso said. "We are equity-owned, Black woman owned, and woman operated. Our cannabis mocktails are a play on regular alcoholic mocktails but instead of alcohol, we're infusing them with cannabis THC Shots, and/or a CBD shot in case you're not too fond of getting too psycho-actively high."

Rose Mary Jane is also having 4/20 celebrations on Saturday.

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